One day Naoko was introduced to the class. She was in the first grade and decided to join the basketball club. “Hello, I’m Naoko. Nice to meet you. I like basketball very much. I’ll try my best.” After that, one girl came up to her. “Hello, I’m Yumi. Nice to meet you, too. Let’s enjoy the club.” She was also a new member of the club. She was the tallest in the club.

    From that day, Yumi and Naoko became best friends. They talked about love, their family and basketball.

    When they became second graders, they had a big game in the summer. In the basketball club, there were about thirty members but only fifteen players could join the game. Yumi and Naoko wanted to play in that big game. “Let’s play harder than usual and become players for the big game,” said Naoko. “Yes, let’s play together.” They cheered each other on.

    The basketball club teacher called names of the members to play in the game on the following Monday. Everyone was so excited.

    From that day, Naoko and Yumi didn’t stay together. Yumi played basketball for the summer game but Naoko didn’t. “I couldn't keep my promise with Yumi…” thought Naomi. She couldn’t play in the big game. “I couldn't keep my promise with Naoko…” Yumi was also thinking the same thing. Naoko was so sad that she started to think about giving up the club. She went to the club teacher and told what she was thinking. The teacher said, “I heard the same thing from Yumi. She is a good player but so are you. I would like you to think hard about what you can do for Yumi and our club.”

    Naoko was so surprised that Yumi was thinking about the same thing. Also she was very happy because the teacher said that Naoko was a good player. “I must do something for her. What should I do?” The day of the game came. Yumi played very hard. Naoko cheered as hard as she could.